i am 12

i finally got a window of opportunity to talk to the guy. while my colleague left to take her class to have a drink at the coffee shop so she could spend some time looking at the guy while he was there with his class having a drink, i recovered the use of my legs after he'd looked at me, and re-entered the lobby. he was standing reading a paper while they seemed to be waiting for something.

he had his back turned to me, but this was my shot, so up i went and said hello. well, no, i didn't. what i said was 'so, you're our local politician'. he looked up, smiled, and said yes, he was. and then we had a completely inane chat with neither of us able to make much sense. in any other situation, i would have been able to ask him lots of questions about what it's like, etc, but i couldn't think of anything to say once i'd said it was unusual to have a politician in school, nor could he muster anything beyond 'do you like teaching?'. it was pathetic. i could see we were going to lose momentum and say even stupider things, so i wished him a nice coffee break and left.

i gave it a minute or so and went back to the lobby, thinking he and his classmates would be gone, but they were still there. i saw this as a chance to make up for my completely idiotic first try and went up to him to ask him why they hadn't left yet. he said they seemed to be waiting for someone. i then suggested that they go ahead and whoever it was could make it there in his/her own time - they did always go to the same place, did they not? as i was saying this, i saw his teacher and i thought, this is ridiculous, they're just going to stand there waiting for ages for a person who i knew had already left. so i basically told her what i'd told him and they decided to go to the coffee shop. my colleague then asked me if i would come along too, but as my break was nearly over, i had to decline (typical!). on his way out, he touched my arm and said thank you. the way he said it, you'd have thought i'd solved a major crisis or something...

later, as the end of class drew near, i'm ashamed to say i sat myself in a prime position so as to be able to start a whole new chat if it was possible. as i was waiting for his class to finish, my colleague (the one who took her class to the coffee shop to see the guy) came up to me and smiled knowingly. i told her i'd managed to talk to him and i was giving her all the details when he came out. he came up to us and started to say goodbye. he explained that it was his last lesson and shook our hands while i became twelve again and said 'that's not cool!'. yeah. really smooth... anyway, he continued by saying he hoped to see us again, and that maybe he'd need to take French lessons (uh... you speak fluent French mate) or other lessons (i'm guessing he meant English?). and that was it. pathetic. i can't believe we're both 32 and yet we basically both acted like teenagers.